Résumé - Christian Wolff

How to reach me:

• E-Mail: wolff-2024 <at> scara <dot> com

Supporting Materials and Media

• Berliner Gazette: "Fernsehen 2.0: Ein Computergenie tüftelt im Silicon Valley an einer neuen Aufteilung des TV-Bildschirms"
• Van Gogh TV - research project
  See also: Van Gogh TV, interview from 2018.
• Prix Ars Electronica - Piazza Virtuale

Curriculum vitae

• April 2013 - present: Staff Software / Standardization Engineer at Dolby Laboratories www.dolby.com), San Francisco (California, USA)
  

  Working on several projects regarding consumer electronics, involving audio, video and metadata processing (Atmos object-based audio and Dolby Vision HDR), and participate regarding those Dolby technologies in HDMI industry forums: CTA (CTA-861), HDMI Forum (HDMI 2.x).

  • 2013-2014: Metadata and audio processing and conversion for Home Atmos. Brought Atmos for AVRs to market.
  • 2014-2019: Software development for consumer electronics.
  • 2019-present: HDMI Standards and Ecosystems

  I received several patents related to my work at Dolby: Google Patent Search

• October 2002 - April 2013: Staff Software Engineer, Senior Staff Software Engineer at Sigma Designs www.sigmadesigns.com [archive.org copy]), Milpitas (San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA)
  

  At Sigma Designs, I was working on platform independent hardware library drivers for HDMI Tx and Rx, video outputs and inputs (Timing and signal setup), clock distribution in our line of Secure Media Processors, as well as code for CEC, I2C, Bt.601/656 baseband, LVDS, I2S and SPDIF interfaces.

  Some select projects:

  • HDMI Tx driver API design, as well as implementation for a variety of third party chips
  • API design and implementation for video (HDMI, YPbPr, CVBS, S-Video, SCART, VGA, Bt.601, Bt.656, LVDS) and audio (I2S, SPDIF) output control and setup
  • EDID parsing and creation library
  • HDMI CEC library
  • Library for HDMI packet and CEA-861 InfoFrame parsing and creation
  • Aspect ratio handling within scaler setup, including support for Active Format Descriptors (AFD) and bar data.
  • Processing of stereoscopic 3D content from various source formats to matching HDMI 3D output modes.
  • Various test and debug applications for the libraries mentioned above

  Furthermore, I am taking part in CEA R4.8 WG7, designing future versions of the CEA-861 specification, and I am an active member of the HDMI Forum TWG, working on the HDMI 2.x specifications.

  Most of my development is in C (Platform independent and Linux), with some parts in Perl, bash script, and occasionally C++.

• 2002 Linux software developer at FinalScratch (www.finalscratch.com [archive.org copy]), Amsterdam, Netherlands (Python, C, Linux)
• 2001 Exhibit builder for the Exploratorium (www.exploratorium.edu), San Francisco, California, USA (C and mechanical engineering)
• 2001 Networking software developer for Smash TV (www.smash.tv [archive.org copy]), San Francisco, California, USA (C, Perl)
• 1999-2001 Lead software developer of the DVD department at convergence integrated media (www.convergence.de [archive.org copy]), Berlin, Germany. (C, Linux)
  CTO for the U.S. subsidiary in San Francisco from June 2000 on.
• 1997-1998 Soft- and Hardware developer for an interactive video studio for the Zeum in San Francisco, California, USA, a children's museum (www.zeum.org [archive.org copy]) (C++, BeOS)
• 1997 Web software developer for the Beta Lounge (www.betalounge.com), San Francisco, California, USA (HTML, Perl)
• 1997 Supporting webmaster at the news magazine "Der Spiegel" (www.spiegel.de), Hamburg, Germany (HTML, Perl, Quark)
• 1990-1997 Software and electronics developer for the Ponton European Media Art Lab, an artist group experimenting with communications and new media (www.ponton.de [archive.org copy]), Hamburg and Hannover, Germany (Turbo Pascal, C, C++, Java, MS-DOS, Linux)

• 1988 Studies of mathematics, computer science and egyptology, University Göttingen, Germany
• 1988 Finished school with "Abitur" (university entrance qualification) at the IGS Göttingen, Germany
• 1982 Started programming at age 13 (UCSD Pascal, CPM Basic)
• 1976 Developed interest in electronics, started tinkering at age 8

• Programming languages
  • C
  • Perl
  • Python
  • C++
  • Java
  • JavaScript / HTML
  • Pascal
• Interface technologies
  • Digital Video: HDMI, DVI, LVDS, Baseband, HDCP
  • Analog Video: CVBS (Composite), YC (S-Video), YPbPr (Component), VGA, SCART, WSS
  • Digital Audio: SPDIF, I2S
  • Control: I2C, CEC, DDC
• Industry Standards
  • CTA-861-G, 805
  • HDMI 1.4b, 2.1
  • HDCP 1.4, 2.2
  • ITU-R Bt.601, Bt.656, Bt.709, Bt.2020, Bt.2100
  • IEC 60958, 61937, 61966
  • SMPTE ST 2084, 2086, 2094
  • VESA DMT, GTF, CVT, E-DDC, E-EDID, DisplayID
• Software technologies
  • Device driver development
  • Communication protocols development
  • Video and Audio application development
  • Media player / set top box development
  • Web server development, including CGI, Java and Javascripts. Developing of administrative scripts.
  • User interface design
  • 3D-Graphics Programming
• Hardware technologies
  • Computer peripherals and interfaces development
  • Video and Audio hardware development
  • Digital electronics development
  • Video studio set up, consumer technology as well as professional equipment
• Operating systems
  • Linux, Unix in general
  • MacOS
  • MS-DOS
  • MS-Windows

• For Dolby Laboratories, 2013-present (www.dolby.com)
  • As Staff software engineer: Atmos for the home
  • As HDMI expert: Contributor to standards development.
• For Sigma Designs, 2002-2013 (www.sigmadesigns.com [archive.org copy])
  • Linux software engineer; Hardware library and driver for HDMI, video and audio for the SMP8xxx line of media processors.
• For FinalScratch, Amsterdam 2002 (www.finalscratch.com [archive.org copy])
  • Software developer for the Linux version of a vinyl record controlled audio playback application
• For the Exploratorium, San Francisco 2001 (www.exploratorium.edu)
  • Supporting technician for the broadcast of a solar eclipse from Zambia, Africa
  • Exhibit builder for the exhibit services division (Tasks included: computer configuration, electronics, electrical installation and machining)
• For convergence integrated media, Berlin and San Francisco 1999-2001 (www.convergence.de [archive.org copy])
  • MPEG2 program and transport stream analyser
  • Linux device driver for a DVD/MPEG2 decoder card
  • DVD Navigator module for a Linux-based DVB-Set-top-box (www.linuxtv.org)
  • CTO, Administration of the convergence U.S. subsidiary office in San Francisco
• With SmashTV, San Francisco 1997-1998, 2001 (www.smash.tv [archive.org copy])
  • "Beta Lounge", Web Server for weekly live web music show (www.betalounge.com)
  • "Production Lab" for the Zeum [archive.org copy]. (www.productionlab.com [local copy]) Included:
    • Interfacing illuminated buttons to computers and
    • Interfacing selector wheels to computers, both with self- developed interfaces
    • Low-level hardware driver development for these interfaces under BeOS
    • Live web audio/video streaming and video-on-demand, using GTS-server
    • Interfacing a video cross switcher, a room light controller and a time display system to a computer running BeOS
    • Development and production of a VU-meter PCB
    • Wiring of an audio/video studio
  • HTML-Chat with perl-scripts for the Beta Lounge
  • Store system and user tracking with php-scripts
  • Distributed stream syndication framework in perl
  • Remote user tracking of DVDs on PC-Based DVD Players
  • "Talking Bricks" for "Urban Renewal Laboratory", development of sound devices for public use, that play up to 2 minutes of sound off an EPROM.
  • "Feed Yourself", Web server for cooking show. (www.feedyourself.com [local copy])
  • "Fillmore Sessions", live webcast and digital images of rock concerts (www.thefillmoresessions.com [archive.org copy])
• For the Spiegel news magazine, Hamburg 1997 (www.spiegel.de)
  • CGI-scripts for production of a web server with hourly updates.
  • CGI-scripts for news archives, full-text search and winning game.
  • Production of news articles from Quark Express onto web server
• On my own :
  • "scara.com" and "scarabeus.org", 1997-today
    Maintenance of a multi-server Linux system in the US and europe for domain and mail hosting.
  • "23 - Nothing is true. Everything is Permissible", Hannover and Cologne 1997 (www.dreiundzwanzig.de [local copy])
    Consulting for a major movie production about hackers working for the from KGB 1986 to '89, relating on the book "Illuminatus" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. I also have a credited role in the movie as "Scarabaeus".
  • Scroll Bar, Hamburg 1994
    Connected a scrolling text display (incandecent light-bulb based) to a PC and developed a control program for live-stage use for the purpose of announcing messages
  • ZIP-Code conversion, Göttingen 1993
    Retrieving of the subscriber addresses of several papers and magazines off an undocumented CPM-system and converting the ZIP- codes in these addresses to new ones, assigned by the local postal authority
  • "Generator", Göttingen 1989
    Multi user text chat with several modems and telephone lines in Göttingen
  • "Solaris", Göttingen 1988
    Bulletin board system in Göttingen, connected with other BBS's in the "Zerberus"-Network by daily message exchange.
• With the Ponton European Media Art Lab, Hamburg/Hannover (www.ponton.de):
  • "EPRI-Watch", Hannover and Brussels 1996-97 (www.epri.org [archive.org copy])
    Information and communication service for european members of parliaments, based on netscape navigator. Document service for legislations of the european union, visualizing the ongoing process of these legislations in a diagram, that allowed access to all the documents involved. Also provider and starting point for internet services for the parliamentarians of the european parliament in brussels.
  • "Local Loop", Hannover 1995-97
    Continuation of the "Service Area" project on another platform, in a local context of Hannover and Lower Saxony. Now MS-Windows and C++ instead of MS-DOS and Turbo Pascal. I did the communication protocol and consultation.
  • "SWF3 Nachtfieber", Baden-Baden 1995
    TV and radio show on a german public law station, featuring a party in the host's flat with 50 to 80 guests in the studio, where the viewers could call in via 30 telephone lines, 30 modems or telenet and communicate with the guests or the host.
  • "Service Area", Hannover and Linz 1994
    Interactive tv-show with 3D-environment for the Ars Electronica in Linz. The users could connect via modem or Internet with a frontend program and navigate in a virtual 3D-world towards each other or on floating islands. There they could communicate with text, voice, music, drawing or video images.
  • "Inforuf", Hannover 1993-96
    Receiving of news information for pagers, puting these messages on the Internet.
  • "GetRTTY", Hannover 1993-96
    Scheduled receiving of radio Teletype transmissions from news agencies via short wave radio. The received texts were published in a BBS-system and put on a ftp server.
  • "AVIS", Hannover and Taiwan 1993-96
    A simple and cheap, non-microprocessor-based video to serial converter for video conferencing over modem connections. The "cheese box" was connected between computer and modem and transmitted every 2 seconds a video image with 19200 baud. The users could text-chat with each other, connecting one-on-one or, with a special server, also multi user, and see each other. I did the front end software development and helped on the interface hardware design.
  • "VSPACE", Hamburg 1993
    3-D visualization of the users in the "ponton voice box"
  • "Ponton Voice Box", Hamburg 1993
    Audiotex-system, an interactive multi-user audio system with chat forums and messaging between the users
  • "SIM-TV", Tokyo 1993
    Presenting the interactive technologies of "piazza virtuale" to the Asian audience on a NHK television show for 3 days.
  • "Piazza Virtuale", Kassel 1992
    Interactive live TV-show, where the viewer/user could use his telephone, his fax-machine or his modem to manifest himself on the TV-screen in different ways. I built a telephone interface, that could handle 20 telephone lines and read touch-tones off these lines. I also developed the data protocol that was used by all the computers to cooperate with each other, scheduled as well as manual controlling in real-time. I programmed controlling and visualization computers in Turbo Pascal and Lingo. I've done a lot of video tech stuff as well as the interfacing between different computer systems (mac, pc, amiga, next, atari st). The project ran for 100 days, several hours each day, on European satellite and German cable networks.
    Video: Preview Documentation (English, 0:10:42)
    Video: Documentation on Piazza Virtuale (English, 0:32:52)
    Video: Documentation on Piazza Virtuale (German, 0:28:55)
  • "Ballroom TV", Berlin 1991
    Live TV transmission from a discotheque on the Berlin cable network, where the viewers could call in with telephone, modem, or videophone and participate in the party.
  • "Hotel Pompino", Linz, 1990
    Three days of live experimental interactive TV, on european satelite broadcaster 3sat, during Ars Electronica.
    Video: Documentation on Hotel Pompino by MacUp (German, 0:39:35)

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